Politics

Miami Battling 34 Cities To Host 2024 Summer Olympics

The Olympic flag is raised during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games on July 27, 2012 at the Olympic stadium in London. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL (Source: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GettyImages)

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami received a letter from U.S. Olympics Committee chief Scott Blackmun this week, in which the Olympics boss informed the city it is being considered for hosting the 2024 Olympic games.

The Magic City will need to pull quite a rabbit out of its hat to win that honor, however, as the city is among 34 others being considered. The other contenders include the country’s 25 largest cities plus 10 others, including Orlando and Jacksonville, reports CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz said the county already has drawn up a resolution in support of exploring an Olympic bid while weighing multibillion-dollar costs versus benefits.

“The Olympics is a very expensive endeavor, but we would be partners with the USOC,” Diaz said. “We have a lot of the infrastructure and venues. We’ve hosted 10 Super Bowls. We would have to analyze what it would mean to citizens, taxpayers and business people.

“If the community isn’t behind it 100 percent, don’t go for it. In the meantime, we keep an open mind.”

A U.S. city has not hosted the Summer Games since Atlanta in 1996 nor any Olympics since Salt Lake City staged the Winter Games in 2002. The most recent bids by the United States — Chicago and New York — were rejected by International Olympic Committee voters after each city spent more than $10 million on the bid process.